WILKES-BARRE – Jack Bova (Camillus, NY/West Genesee) recorded a career-high 14 points on four-of-eight shooting, highlighting five double-figure scorers as the Wilkes University men's basketball team advanced in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Men's Basketball Championship with a 77-62 victory over Penn State University Behrend at the Marts Center on Friday evening.

The Colonels are now 19-8 on the season.

The Lions started the scoring just 37 seconds into the game when they converted a layup, which was countered by a Mark Mullins (Binghamton, NY/Chenango Valley) three-pointer with an assist from Zach Brunner (Mechanicsburg, PA/Mechanicsburg) and a second from Landon Henry (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville), again with an assist from Brunner.

With 9:33 showing on the clock and Wilkes leading 22-20, PSU-Behrend started an 8-0 run to jump out 28-22, a burst stopped by a three-pointer from Rob Pecorelli (Huntington, NY/Harborfields) with an assist from Marcus Robinson (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional).

From that point, Wilkes outscored the Lions 11-1 to finish the half as it entered halftime with a 33-29 lead.

PSU-Behrend hit the first layup of the second half 34 seconds in, but it was the Colonels who got the first run as they went up 37-31 after a 4-0 run with layups from Mullins and Brunner with 16:51 showing.

Wilkes pushed its lead to eight at 46-38 following a Pecorelli layup, causing the Lions to take the first timeout of the second period.

After both teams traded two buckets the Colonels reached a 14-point lead with back-to-back three-pointers from Bova, making the score 56-42 and forcing PSU-Behrend to call another time out with just over nine
minutes remaining.

Wilkes reached its largest lead of the contest following a 13-6 run at the five-minute mark after another Mullins three-ball with an assists from Bova.

The Colonels cruised to the victory the rest of the way.

Mullins led the way for Wilkes with 16 points. Pecorelli (15 points, three rebounds), Landon Henry (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) (matched career-high of 11 points with three assists), Tommy Bowen (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) (14 points, five rebounds), and Bova also finished with more than 10 points.

Dan Wanker led the Lions with 19 points and nine rebounds while Malike Brinson added 14 points and four rebounds while Derrick Clark contributed 13 points off the bench.

The Colonels played one of their cleanest victories of the season, only turning the ball over three times while forcing the Lions into 15 giveaways and turning those takeaways into 18 points while PSU got zero points off turnovers. Wilkes recorded 14 second chance points compared to two for the Lions, and the Colonels bench scored 28 points to 15 for PSU.

Wilkes returns to the court tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. at the Marts Center when it will face the winner of Baruch College and Widener University.